An evaporator is an apparatus that changes a solid or liquid into a gas or vapor. Evaporators are used, for example, to evaporate a waste liquid, like dirty water, thus separating the liquid from wastes, like oil or solvents, contained in the liquid. Evaporators may be used to dispose of dirty water used to clean machinery, water used to help pump oil out of oil wells, and numerous other applications.
A conventional waste liquid evaporator includes a heating element like a heating coil or plate. The heating clement is submerged in a waste liquid to heat the liquid to boiling, thus converting the liquid to vapor.
Often the waste liquid contains contaminants. The contaminants become caked on the heating element when the heating clement heats the liquid. The caked-on contaminants act as an insulator, reducing the efficiency of the evaporator. The evaporator must then be disassembled and the contaminants removed from the heating elements to keep the evaporator in proper working condition.
It is an object of the invention described in this document to address that problem by evaporating waste liquid in such a way that the primary evaporation occurs while the liquid is not in contact with a surface on which deposits can form.
Conventional evaporators may also leave behind pollutants, like wood pulp or paint chips, after a waste liquid is evaporated. Those pollutants must then be disposed of.
Another object of this invention is to minimize the pollutants resulting from the evaporation process.
Evaporators also require energy to vaporize waste liquids. Another object of this invention is to efficiently use energy.